Welcome to The Wheatley School Alumni Association Newsletter # 210.

Correction to Issue # 208

Eddie Kritzler’s (1958) friend “Charlie” was Charles Shapiro (1958), not Charles Zimmerman (1960), although the latter was and is a friendly guy (and coached my Little League baseball team 60+ years ago).

Class of 1985 40th-Year Reunion

Jared Goldstein (1985) Writes - The Wheatley School Class of 1985 40th-Year Reunion will be held one week from today, on June 21, 2025 at 6:00 pm at Phebe's Tavern, 361 Bowery, at East 4th Street, in the East Village of Manhattan. Anyone who likes someone from our class is welcome. It is a buy-your-own drinks-and-food gathering. To have our own room and bartender, we need to order, in advance, $500 worth of food. We have been using Facebook ‘Wheatley Class of 1985 Reunion’ to check in. If Facebook isn't for you, text Jared at 917-533-1057 or email JAREDG@PIPELINE.COM. Please attend and bring someone.

Thank you. Best regards, Jared

The North Side School Fire

Ike Evans (1965) Writes - I was taken by the article in Newsletter # 209 about the 3/2/1957 fire at the North Side School. I was in a 6th grade class that Mr. Robert Foerschner taught, and our classroom was in the front on the 2nd floor (shown in the photograph). It was a total loss, but I remember going to view the building, and you could see the pencil sharpener which was screwed to the window sill - the sole survivor. Mrs. Margaret Mingus, the mother of Carolyn (1966) and Richard Mingus (1968), had been my 4th grade teacher, and her classroom was also a total loss.

Still More Wheatley Fencing

Laurence Schiller (1968) Writes - “Dear Art – My wife and I returned from a dream vacation of 6 weeks in Europe last week, and I was catching up on my Wheatley Newsletters when two things happened. First, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there were several pieces about fencing at Wheatley, and second, that task was interrupted by a call from the USA Fencing national office that brought me the news that I was just elected by the membership to the U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame, Class of 2026, for my coaching career. After spending 60 years in the sport as a competitor, Head Coach at Northwestern University, tournament organizer, and just about every other job you can do except Athletic Trainer, it was fun to read about Wheatley fencing, where my fencing odyssey began. Since I didn’t overlap with any of your correspondents, I thought I’d add my two cents.

So, Wheatley fencing. Congrats to Peter Calderon (1961) on his wonderful veteran achievements and Carol Abby (1963) on all of her achievements both in fencing and everything else. I had not heard of those things, and that is the wonder of this Newsletter! I went out for the fencing team in the fall of 1965 as a 10^thgrader. My brother, Lanny Schiller (1965), a good friend of Steve Amerikaner (1965), fenced for some time on the team, and I decided that if he could do it, well, so could I. So, when I saw a notice for the team, I went down to the cafeteria and listened to the spiel. We were not allowed to practice in the gym, so we were consigned to the slippery tile floor of the cafeteria. Sam Phillips was the faculty advisor/coach. Mr. Stein had died the year before, and Mr. Phillips, who had been my 8^th grade social studies teacher, took it over. I seem to remember that he had some college experience, but I do not remember where.

As Robert Kolb (1974) mentioned, there was also a club, called the Long Island Swordsmen, that met in the gym of the Willets Road School, which was an easy walk for me, as I lived in the Roslyn Country Club. So, I learned in practice and at the club. For practice, we changed in the locker room and walked in our gear all the way across the school to the cafeteria. I don’t remember who ran the LI Swordsmen club, but I do remember that Luis Bankuti (I think that is the correct spelling), who was, I believe, Hungarian and the Assistant Coach to Head Coach Hugo Costello at Columbia University, came several times a week and gave lessons. I took lessons from him.

My very first lesson was from Carol Abby who, just three weeks into my first season, came to practice and worked with each of us. For some reason, there were no women on the team when I fenced, so when Carol came and stood in front of me and asked me to hit her in the chest, I was reluctant to do that. So she grabbed my blade and slammed it into her jacket – and then she showed me that she wore two steel plates in pockets in her jacket that protected her. I remember her telling me that I shouldn’t worry, because she was ‘armored’! I’m sure she has no recollection of that, but it definitely stuck in my 15-year-old adolescent mind.

There weren’t many teams in Nassau, although Chaminade and Oyster Bay are two I remember, and we fenced non-electric foil only in Nassau. We did go to Suffolk and fenced electrically (fencing is scored electronically), and we generally got whupped. But we did OK in Nassau. We also participated in a tournament called the “Bittles” (no idea why it was called that) at NYU. They hosted high school teams at their now demolished gym on Washington Square. It was a horror of an old building, with six or seven floors and only stairs. There may have been an elevator somewhere, but I don’t remember it. The tournament was held in different badly-lit gyms with big windows on several different levels, and you had to drag your stuff up and down the stairs. I specifically remember going in my senior year (1968), and we actually beat Coney Island’s Lincoln High School in the first round, only to be demolished by Stuyvesant, a perennial power, in the next. Somewhere, we also fenced Jamaica High School and lost. Mr. Phillips was enthusiastic, and we all had a good time.

I went on to have a decidedly mediocre career at Rutgers, where I discovered that there were two other weapons aside from foil, which is all that we fenced in HS, and looking back on it, I really should have been a sabre fencer. I was fast and liked to hit, perfect for sabre. But, I had HS experience, and they had me fence foil. I had two Hungarian coaches in college, both of whom were on the Hungarian Olympic team in Melbourne in 1956 when the Hungarian revolution broke out. They defected with most of the team and came to the U.S. One of them, Czaba Eltesh, coached the U.S. National sabre team when I knew him. The other’s son, Paul Pesthy, was a multiple U.S. national champion in epee and coached two of our long time recent U.S. Olympians. BTW, like Tim Clarke (1973), I also went to Santelli’s in NYC and got lessons in the summer.

I went to Northwestern for my Ph.D. in African History, and while there, in the fall of 1978, I coached their little fencing club. I decided I wanted to try and turn the club into a higher level program, and well, from 1978-2016, I did just that, retiring as the winningest coach in any sport at Northwestern, and the 2^nd winningest in the NCAA in fencing. So, it was nice to be recognized by USA Fencing for what I had accomplished in 38 years at NU…..but, you know, it all started in the Wheatley cafeteria with Sam Phillips! Fortunately, coaching skills and performance skills are different skill sets! Thanks for letting me go down memory lane with you all.”

Robert Gordon Kalb (1974) Writes - “Good Morning, Art, In Newsletter # 208, Ruthie Rotholz (1974) provides more intel about Wheatley Fencing. I am happy to learn that the women’s team was successful in tourney play. With regard to my statements about winning/losing – I stand corrected! I guess what I meant was that I, myself, never won a match – of that I am quite confident! So to Ruthie, touché!”

2001 New York Times Article About East Williston

NY Times Article About East Williston

Graduates

1958 - Eddie Kritzler - Remembered

Elizabeth Stone Matho (1963) Writes - “Growing up, Eddie Kritzler was my back-door neighbor, and quite a heartthrob! His parents, Gert and Sidney, were two of the warmest and most interesting people in our neighborhood. They traveled all over, but mostly to places that others hadn't yet thought of visiting, such as South or Latin America. They were politically active, especially Sid. At one of the neighborly dinner get-togethers at my house, with such “S Section” neighbors as the Friedmans, Roeders, Oppenheims, Stevens’s, and perhaps a few others, suddenly Sid stood on a chair and announced, ‘Let the debate begin!’ What he meant was the political debate! He was (according to my parents) an avowed communist (or socialist?), and there was at least one Republican in the group, although all the others were probably Democrats. It became a rather heated conversation, but leave it to Sidney to bring out the brutal honesty in everyone by encouraging such an exchange!

When civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, and James Cheney were planning their ill-fated 1964 trip to Mississippi, Sid counseled them as to how to behave if they got arrested, how to disarm their jailers by talking to them, and how, he hoped, to talk their way out of jail. But we know that this wasn't enough to counter the cruel forces arrayed against them.”

Jesse Samberg (1964) - Writes - "I remember Eddie Kritzler in a different way. Eddie was a school bus driver during some of his time after college, and he drove my bus. We were the last stop, on Barnyard Lane. Our next door neighbor had an au pair from France who was blonde and beautiful. One day, Eddie says to me, ‘Kid, who's that girl.?’ I told him who and what, and he asked me to introduce him.

Seemed nuts, but so what. He parked in front of our house and I introduced him. The next day I get on the bus, and he says, "Jesse, how are you doing." "Good." Everyone on the bus says, "You know Eddie Kritzler! How do you know Eddie Kritzler?" He was a God in every way. Thereafter, for the next few weeks, Eddie would park the bus in front of our house and disappear for a while."

David Greenapple (1979) Writes - Eddie Kritzler was my next-door neighbor growing up in Roslyn Heights. There were 20 years between us, but he felt like a close friend. He was the friendliest, most energetic, happy person I knew -- he always brightened the day, and he took great interest in us, the young kids next door. He loved to tell stories about his Wheatley football heroics.

When his Jamaican wife came into our lives, she brought her beautiful smile and warmth, and I remember how much love they felt for each other. I remember when he moved to Jamaica to live there. Life is short and full of difficulty, and Eddie brightened up my day every time I got to see him.”

1960 - Renee Gershen Nadel and Elaine Kent Abrams - Lunch in Boca Raton